Santana narrowed her eyes at Sam he had been glancing over at her the entire car ride, "I didn't have sex with Quinn," she snaps hotly, her cheeks coloring with the statement.

Sam chuckled, "I know that."

"Then why are you staring at me? It's rude to stare at people you know."

"Is it? I was raised by vampires," Sam said with an easy-going shrug. They had a tendency to stare at things, and no one dared call them out on it.

Santana rolled her eyes, "You can't blame all your quirks on the twins. They treated you like a pet," Santana reminded him.

"A well-fed pet who wanted for nothing," Sam pointed out with a shrug. "Like I said, they're like my parents, they fed me, clothed me, took care of me when no one else would. All I occasionally had to do was shift into a puppy and tear at their clothes to get out of trouble. I mean I had an easy life."

Santana scowled, "Good for you, that doesn't explain why you were staring."

"I was staring because you smell like Quinn," Sam grinned. He quickly clarifies before Santana can start snapping at him. "You don't smell like sex. But I mean Quinn's scent is all over you and your hands. So, what did she make you do? Clean out her closet? Do her laundry?"

"Give her a massage," Santana muttered turning to look out the window.

"Oh."

"Don't—"

"And you didn't jump her and have your way with her? Though it is Quinn so chances are she would have her way with you," Sam mused laughing when Santana slugged him hard in his arm. "Well, I suppose it's a good thing you didn't have sex with her. Charlie might not seem it, but she's extremely possessive. I remember when Finn, one of the members of the Red Court hit on her in front of Charlie. Quinn didn't exactly tell him to go fuck himself, and Charlie wasn't amused. Every piece bed was splintered by the time they left. As for Finn, Charlie left stakes in all his limbs and then purposely missed his heart. It was this whole thing."

"She's the one that gave her blessing!" Santana insisted immediately. "And she likes me."

"She likes Quinn more," Sam points out, but shrugs. "But I think Charlie likes you, though it's not like Quinn."

"She spoke in front of me," Santana reminds him. "A few times."

Sam tapped the wheel of his car, "I know, she likes you personally and she tolerates you better than she tolerates other people, but her liking you is a different thing."

"She sexually harasses me as she humiliates me," Santana throws in, when he looks at her she flushes. "She smacks my ass and stuff," Santana shook her head. "I imagine she does that with all the humans."

"Well, no. She doesn't the humans are afraid of her, no one exactly knows what goes in Charlie's mind except for Quinn. So, if you want her to stop, talk to her. Who knows depending on her mood she'll probably talk back. I mean she's actually talking to you and she might have said something if she had any idea where you were going today." Sam reminds her narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Artie needs rehabilitation, he also needs to learn that he was wrong. That violence isn't the right way. He's not a thrall, Quinn even said that he should have been showing the symptoms if he was. He can be rehabilitated." Santana insists.

"He's not a thrall, I'll give you that. But I don't think you actually understand what that means. It means that he's a regular human who thought that violence was the answer. That collateral damage was perfectly fine, that it was okay to hurt innocent humans, innocent shifters to get at the vampires. Without thinking about the response. True the vampires need humans as a source of food, but if they were anyone other than the twins there would have been a crackdown. In fact, most shifters, and vampires of their court were calling for it. Security theatre, that's what Quinn called it. You are incredibly lucky that they can't be killed. Hunter certainly wanted to try."

"And they let him plot against them?"

"They're truly immortal. They can't be killed Santana, you think that Hunter was smart enough to think of a way to disable them permanently?" Sam points out. "They're older than him and they were trained by Sue."

Santana shakes her head, this was all very complicated. Charlie had no problem taking Hunter's head, she wouldn't mind if they actually cracked down a bit. "Freedom for the powerful huh?"

Sam frowned, "Careful, Santana. You need to remember where you are and who you are. I'm sure Artie the terrorist will have some relatively good arguments about the power imbalance, about how the vampires are just placating them by giving them a seat at the table but remember who has their ear."

"You think anything Artie has to say is going to convince me that I'm on the wrong side of history here? They didn't have to let him go they didn't have to keep their promise. If they say that they are going to try, I'm going to believe them to make an effort. I'm going to believe that Quinn is going to try and make it work and at the very least not send Charlie to slaughter them like sheep."

Sam snorted at this and shook his head, deciding not to say anything. "We're here. I'm going to be outside, if you need anything just yell and I'll be there in seconds. I would suggest reminding him that you are protected and if anything happens to you, I'm sure that Quinn will destroy everything that Artie cares about."

"Using words won't hurt me. I can use words to cut him just as deeply," Santana promises.

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it," Sam informs her as he leans back in his seat. "You have an hour."

~O~

"I hear it's difficult, you know going from prison back to freedom," Santana offers finally it had been nearly ten minutes of silence between her and Artie. The sounds of Artie's mother hurrying around the kitchen were the only sounds that broke up the silence. "I found it hard to adapt—"

"You're their pet. You barely human anymore. How many times do they feed on you? Treat you like a blood whore?" Artie snaps. "The city has burned, and if you think for a moment that people are going to buy that fake olive branch that the vampires are offering you're just being naive."

Santana studied him, "The city is still standing Artie. I know you're not really allowed that many visitors but they let you go with the intention of having you rehabilitated. They don't think you can enter society again, I had to argue with them to keep you alive. To see the value in having you alive. It wasn't your fault. Will is a thrall. It wasn't his fault either."

Artie scoffed angrily, "And yet he's still in there."

"The only thing that they can do for him is put a bullet in his head. Finding out what they did to him—how they did it to him and how to track people who get turned into thralls is important to keep us safe. It was the only way I could think to save him, maybe they find a cure, maybe he gets to be normal again but right now he belongs there. He's a danger to everyone around him including you. I know how much you respected him."

"You didn't."

"I thought that we should do things peacefully. The vampires, the regents aren't unreasonable. In fact, one of them even likes humans as a whole, that's why she kept me alive. Sure, I became a pet and I know how that seems it's weird, but Sam pointed out that I'm currently one of the most powerful people in the area. They don't really listen to other vampires, they don't particularly like the shifters, and they're listening to me they're changing how they interact with humans. They are giving us a voice."

"Right are the mandatory blood draws, the forced labor—"

"Isn't the work of the regents, I know them. They honestly don't care which is sometimes worse than them attempting to fix things. They operate on an if they hear about it and it's a cause for concern they'll act. But they aren't going to go out of their way to fix things. I know that things aren't where they should be right now but I have their ear Artie, things are finally starting to move forward."

"Right and how do you know what the people want? You're up there, not down here. You're probably dining on fancy food. You're in that bubble, what do you know about the plight now?"

"Probably as much as you do," Santana sniped. "You were in prison when ghouls attacked, the people saw them defending them, doing what they were supposed to. It's not the same world that you left and you could do a lot of good, this isn't about loyalty, they don't need you to be loyal to them. But the terrorist attacks need to stop Artie, they're hurting your cause. The people that you swore to protect are just as terrified of that as they are of the damn vampires. You're a smart guy Artie who are they going to flock to with? The people who say that they are trying to protect them, who make bombs and don't give a shit who those bombs kill? Or the vampires, who killed a member of their own because he was hurting them. Who are they going to trust? You've already lost. So be better. You need to be better because violence isn't the answer. It will never be the answer." Santana stands, it was a lot to think about but hopefully Artie would think about it. "I should go, there shifters are in an uproar about giving the humans more power. Someone needs to stop Quinn from having Charlie kill them all in annoyance."

"They'll turn on you, if they haven't now. They will, they aren't to be trusted Santana. You think I'm blind? At least I'm not in love with a fucking vampire. They'll drain you dry or worse steal our humanity from you and when that time comes I won't hesitate to put you down. You're a race traitor and you know it."

"I'm doing my part, just not the way you are. And if you keep talking like that they'll never let you out of this house Artie. They won't, I'm sorry about what happened to you but you did partake in terrorist activity. You dragged me into this shit, if you hadn't done that we could all still be talking about how to make the city good for all races. If you want to remain bitter about your legs, about what happened to you that's fine, but I'm going to move on. I'll see you next week Artie, and I'll keep coming back until you're ready to join me in making this a better place."